3 ms·

I think gaming is still the big issue. I have an i7-4800MQ and frequently do large compiles. At first, my computer became almost unusable during compiles, which

I think gaming is still the big issue. I have an i7-4800MQ and frequently do large compiles. At first, my computer became almost unusable during compiles, which I attributed to the CPU being hogged by the compiler. I recently switched to doing my builds on an external hard-drive and no longer notice any performance difference when I am compiling. I don't remember the last time I have seen my CPU running near 100% (other than by a process that shouldn't be doing anything and is probably in a while(true) type loop that would eat up any amount of speed), but I do remember plenty of times when my computer was slow, and my hdd led was solid every time. EDIT: I suppose this does suggest a use for extra CPU: harddrive compression

ownagefool 12y ago
This would be because, given the workload, your external drive isn't quick enough to keep up with the CPU while your internal is? You could obviously use something like nice / ionice if you don't want to kludge an external drive about, but to me it seems like an inherit problem with our systems that we can make them unusable just by doing something like a compile.
ehsanu1 12y ago
My guess is that you were swapping. In addition to slowness, this explains how switching to an external hard drive for the files you're compiling would help, since it would reduce contention on a single hard drive. Next time it happens, check if you're out of memory and using a lot of swap space/virtual memory. If so, you just need more RAM. Also, the best upgrade for any computer these days is an SSD, an HDD being the slowest part of modern computers.